Fantastic addition and (supposed) conclusion of the Dark Souls series. The Greatest Hits collection of all “Souls” games, which has it’s cons, but makes a incredibly fun to play game.
If there’re things to have some nitpicks about, it’s the combat build balancing and the fact, that the story feels too reliant on the first game. First thing is about the fact, that Souls went from ability to play shielded knight in Demon’s without much issue to Souls 3, where your guard will be broken way too often to not be more reliant on dodges. While it’s not an issue for my styles of play, it can annoy those, who liked to be more on the defensive as even simplest enemies will easily stagger them.
Second thing is about the fact, that DkS III feels like a very unexpected direct sequel to the first game after a much more vague “set in the same world and maybe even same place but many centuries later” second game. It feels like Silent Hill 3 after 2 decided to do “it’s own thing”, except Dark Souls 3 doesn’t tell us everything and ruin the mystique of the world. There’s still magic in it’s vagueness, but it often feels like the developers felt the need to close the story they told in the first game in the most definite way possible by making you re-live some of the old moments and even revisit some old places almost as you remember them.
The game, in general, feels very much like a “Greatest Hits re-recorded by a band many years later, with more experience and still a lot of passion” thing. And as with music records of this kind, sometimes the more experienced new arrangements of old songs lose some of their raw flawed beauty. Game never feels like it was done “by the book”. It still surprises in many unexpected ways with bosses, twists to usual mechanics and such, moreso than other Souls games. It feels, again, more of a rich adventure with RPG, platforming, action, clever tricks and amazing levels, rather than a very good action RPG, Dark Souls 2 was. Which also means, that some of the nuances from 2 are also gone here. And some people won’t like it.
Some people won’t also like that it’s “easier” than previous Souls games. Things are still deadly and dangerous and full of STUFF that helps or kills you, but you will rarely get truly stuck on some part. There are few unfun sections and not particularly good bosses, but the game this time around feels more generous towards the player. Punishing the mistakes, but in a less harsh way than especially Dark Souls 1 did. There are rarely ever occasions to farm for souls or upgrade materials, if you’re thorough in exploration, it rarely feels like you’re hitting a wall when you go forward – it feels like an hill you need to climb, but it’s fun and rewarding, more than ever before. It feels like this is the balance they always strived for but couldn’t really do right before Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3.
And PC version is very good, but with some issues. At the time of writing some people are having severe issues, though no one I know. But it’s something to be aware of – PC configurations are very different, after all, and for some people there might be huge issues. For me, the main issue was strangely inconsistent, but high, framerate which sometimes screwed up dodge/attack timings by a lot. Hopefully, this will be addressed in patches.
For now, I’m sadly putting this away and await for hopefully great DLCs. Don’t disappoint, From, the hopes are very high.:)